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‘The Sabbaths …. Spent Before in Idleness & the Neglect of the Word’:1 the Godly and the Use of Time in their Daily Religion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Historians have long been aware that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the intensely religious were especially strict in their observance of the Sabbath, in their rejection of amusements and diversions, and their dedication of the day to public duties and religious exercises. The godly did not restrict their religion to the Sabbath nor indeed to public exercises, for they attempted to maintain a daily regime of family worship and private study or devotion. Yet the godly were distinguished not only by the seriousness of their religious observance, but also, out of fear of neglecting their religious duties, by their attempts to discipline their day and regulate their time.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 37: The Use and Abuse of Time in Christian History , 2002 , pp. 211 - 221
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2002
Footnotes
1
Leicester, Leicestershire Record Office [hereafter LRO], Records of the Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel, Leicester, N/U/179/50, ‘Declaration of Communicants’, 1711–32/3, William Marshall (8 May 1712). I am grateful to the Chairman and Vestry of the Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel for permission to use and quote from the volume. The contractions in the quotations used in this paper have all been silently extended, and in some cases slightly modernized.
References
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11 Ibid., pp. 118–19 (12, 14 April 1680).
12 Ibid., p. 128 (14 May 1680).
13 Ibid., p. 177 (1 Nov. 1680).
14 YAS, MS 12, Ralph Thoresby to Mr Joseph Hill, minister at Rotterdam, 5 March 1696.
15 YAS, MS 21, p. 186 (3 Dec. 1680).
16 Ibid., pp. 301–2 (1 Oct. 1681).
17 YAS, MS 26, Autobiography of Ralph Thoresby to 1714, p. 1.
18 Ibid., p. 40.
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28 A few individuals gave a second testimony, e.g. Eliza Groce (22 Aug. 1711, 4 May 1721), and Joseph Bentley (2 Nov. 1711, 4 June 1720).
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30 LRO, N/U/179/50, Bethia Belton (23 May 1713).
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32 LRO, N/U/179/50, Henry Rice (12 Jan. 1715/16); Susannah Richardson (24 April 1714). Cf. Elizabeth Carver (20 Aug. 1717).
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35 For a discussion, see D. L. Wykes, ‘Religious dissent and the penal laws: an explanation of business success?’, History, 75 (1990), pp. 61–2.
36 YAS, MS 21, p. 135 (2 June 1680).